In a series of events that took place before she hit puberty, obviously, Christina Hendricks shared some anecdotes about growing up an emo ugly duckling; an easy-target for the more popular kids in her high school. On the promotional trail for Mad Men that returns in a month, following a year of tedious imitators, Hendricks says she was saved by modelling and then “womanly” weight gain.
On the bada$$ little kids at her school: “My school days were pretty unhappy. I had the worst high school experience ever. I went to a very mean school and was bullied like crazy. I was a bit of a goth with purple hair and I was also part of the drama group, so my friends and I were all weird theatre people and everyone just hated us. There was a long corridor with lockers on either side and kids would sit on top of them and spit on you. It was like something out of Lord of the Flies.”
On feeling different: “The girls there had purses and I still had my backpack from Idaho. Moving as a teenager is never easy. So I tried to set myself apart and it ended up with multi-coloured hair. It was how I was expressing myself. I was a goth kid. I dyed my hair about 42 different colours, shaved it at the back and wore black make-up. Kids can be pretty judgmental about people who are different. But instead of breaking down and conforming, I stood firm. That is also probably why I was unhappy. My mother was mortified [I dyed my blonde hair red] and kept telling me how horrible and ugly I looked. Strangers would walk by with a look of shock on their face, so I never felt pretty. I just always felt awkward. If I could go back and tell my 14-year-old self anything it would be, ‘Don’t worry. You’re going to be doing exactly what you want to be doing and those people who are a***holes now are still going to be a***holes in 20 years. So let it go!’”
On learning to love her looks: After leaving school Christina was persuaded to enter a contest to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine. Wearing a wig she posed for pictures in a cemetery. And even though she didn’t win the competition, those photographs proved a revelation. “When I got the pictures back my mum and I started crying because I had no idea I could be pretty. I’d always felt awkward. It was the first time I really felt pretty. It just sort of changed my perspective of myself.”
On modelling at 19 and changing body type: “I loved [modelling in New York]. I think it helped that I started a bit older, but I really took advantage of the travel and learning about different cultures.’ At 5ft 8in tall and weighing 11st [154 pounds], Christina is a UK size 14 [about a US size 10] and those famous curves reportedly measure 38DD-32-38. But when she started modelling she was just over eight stone [112 pounds]. She says: ‘I’d done ballet for years and was tiny then, a size 4, so I didn’t have any problems about conforming to a certain body type. As you get older your body changes. I’ve tried to embrace how I look at every stage. When I was working in Italy I was having cappuccinos every day. I’d take my clothes off in front of the mirror and be like, ‘Oh, I look like a woman.’ I felt beautiful and I never tried to lose it ’cos I loved it. I was 20lb lighter than I am now, but modelling agencies used to tell me to lose 10, 15, 20lb. I’d be like ‘That’s bone, I can’t. That’s not going anywhere!’”
On women wanting boob jobs to look like her: “I hope I’m not encouraging that. If there’s anything to be learned from me it’s that I’m learning to celebrate what I was born with, even though it’s sometimes been inconvenient. Having larger breasts has made it harder to shop, but I’ve learned to love it… But now I feel like everyone talks about my bust in public.”
On being called fat by The New York Times, ‘You don’t put a big girl in a big dress,’ in a picture they stretched to make appear wider: “It was rude. It was goofy and it hurt my feelings.”
On meeting her now-husband: “We were both coming out of other relationships and weren’t in that mindset. Then my friends invited him to dinner and he was late. They asked if I wanted to save the seat next to me for Geoffrey and I went: ‘No, no, it’s not like that.’ Of course, as soon as I said it didn’t matter, it suddenly did matter. I think my brain had to catch up with my heart.”
On the lazy sexy label: “It’s very nice. But my husband always says, ‘I told you that years ago!’ And he’s the one who makes me feel sexy.” – via The Daily Mail.
